Corn blowing over
My sweet corn is two feet tall and looking great. However, wind over the last couple of days, corn is leaning over at a 45 degree angle or more. Question I have is what causes corn not to develop deeper roots? We do have sugar sand but I have seen corn raised by others in my area. What do I do now?
I had issues with my corn blowing over every year, but the winds here don't hit till mine is about 6' tall. Last year I decided to grow beans in with the corn, and man it worked wonders. The bean vines grew up the stalks and sort of tied some of the staliks together if u know what I mean, letting them all help support one another. I didn't lose a single stalk to wind last year. I doubt if this would help 2ft stalks very much but I thought id mention it.
2ft tall seems like it should be very hard to blow over. corn is usually a stout little plant. Are they getting enough sun? I'm wondering if they were a little lankier/weaker than they should have been.
2ft tall seems like it should be very hard to blow over. corn is usually a stout little plant. Are they getting enough sun? I'm wondering if they were a little lankier/weaker than they should have been.
make sure you hill up your corn...
it will constantly need to be hilled with soil... any time your stalks are leaning or falling down from wind or whatever just pyle up soil around the stalks it keeps them stronger and sturdy.
last year my corn grew over 7 feet tall and it fell over a few times, but the good thing about corn is its a survivor and I pyled soil (hill) around the stalks and it worked perfectly.
it will constantly need to be hilled with soil... any time your stalks are leaning or falling down from wind or whatever just pyle up soil around the stalks it keeps them stronger and sturdy.
last year my corn grew over 7 feet tall and it fell over a few times, but the good thing about corn is its a survivor and I pyled soil (hill) around the stalks and it worked perfectly.
For next year, if you plant corn again:
Try trench planting - do a shallow trench down the rows, then plant the corn seed in the bottom of the trench. Then you have more soil to rake into the trench as it grows, adding more support to the growing plant. It the same thing as trenching potatoes.
If your sand is that soft (I have the same powdery stuff here in coastal NW Florida), the spring rains will wash the trench sides in over time so you don't really have to do that much.
Try trench planting - do a shallow trench down the rows, then plant the corn seed in the bottom of the trench. Then you have more soil to rake into the trench as it grows, adding more support to the growing plant. It the same thing as trenching potatoes.
If your sand is that soft (I have the same powdery stuff here in coastal NW Florida), the spring rains will wash the trench sides in over time so you don't really have to do that much.